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Week of April 24 - 30, 2006

Welcome to the National Dialogue on Entrepreneurship, an initiative of the Public Forum Institute made possible by a grant from the Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City. Through NDE-news, we bring you short summaries and analyses of various trends driving the innovation economy. Subscribe now to receive your weekly copy. Archived issues are available online. Links to the day's entrepreneurship stories from across the nation and around the world are posted each weekday on the NDE main page - bookmark it and stay informed about the latest entrepreneurship news.

The Rhodes Scholar of Entrepreneurship?

Gordon Brown – Chancellor of the Exchequer and heir-apparent to Tony Blair in the UK – highlighted a program in his budget speech to help young Brits develop their entrepreneurial skills by spending six months in the US with some of America’s most innovative entrepreneurial thinkers, experts and business leaders. The program brings together the UK’s National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) and the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to create a scholarship program for 15-20 of Britain’s most promising young entrepreneurs in a move backed by the UK’s Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and its Small Business Service (SBS). The program will focus on students who have excelled in engineering, science or technology, and is designed to help them better understand how they can move their ideas and innovations into the marketplace, turning their technical skills and knowledge into new innovative high impact start-up companies. The students, selected by the NCGE, will spend the first three months in the UK in preparation for their period in the US where, hosted by the Kauffman Foundation, they will spend time both in an entrepreneurial university setting and at entrepreneurial companies.

For more information on NCGE, visit www.ncge.org.uk. For more information on the Kauffman Foundation, visit www.kauffman.org. 

African American Business Booms

Last month we reported on the boom in Latino-owned business; this month it’s African-American owned firms. New data from the US Census Bureau shows that African Americans have the entrepreneurship bug. The latest data from the 2002 economic census finds that the number of black-owned firms grew by 45% between 1997 and 2002. (The total number of businesses in the US grew by 10% over this period). Meanwhile, the revenue of these firms grew by 25% over the same period. Overall, there are 1.2 million black-owned businesses in the US, accounting for roughly $88.8 billion in revenues. These impressive statistics also contain some more sobering notes. As with all types of businesses, most black-owned firms are small. Ninety-two percent were self-employment ventures. For all US firms, self-employment ventures account for ¾ of the total. So, while African-American entrepreneurship is booming, the future challenge ahead is to assist these new entrepreneurs in creating businesses that provide employment opportunities and generate new wealth in the community.

To access the April 2006 U.S. Census Bureau report, Black-Owned Firms: 2002, visit http://www.census.gov/prod/ec02/sb0200csblk.pdf.

State Bioscience Initiatives

Every state wants to be the next hot biotech hub, and they’re backing this desire with a lot of money and new programs. If you want to get a sense of the dizzying array of new state biotech initiatives, check out the new report from BIO, the Biotechnology Industry Association. Growing the Nation’s Bioscience Sector: State Bioscience Initiatives 2006, was prepared by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice and SSTI. It provides a comprehensive look at the state of America’s biosciences industries. The numbers are impressive---overall, the biosciences sector employs 1.2 million people with an average annual wage of nearly $66,000. More states are getting into the game in terms of supporting the biosciences. Hot areas for public investment include development of sectors beyond medicine and health like agriculture, environmental sciences. While many states are discussion stem cell research, only four states (California, Connecticut, Illinois, and New Jersey) have opted to provide funding in this controversial area. The researchers predict that translational research will become a more important area for future state investments. At this point, few states have made investments to improve linkages between basic and clinical research. In addition to highlight leading trends, the report and its supporting web page also include detailed activity and investment profiles for every state.

To access the 2006 BIO report, Growing the Nation’s Bioscience Sector: State Bioscience Initiatives 2006, prepared by the Battelle Technology Partnership Practice and SSTI, visit http://www.bio.org/local/battelle2006/

The High-Tech Economy 101

For nine years, the AeA (formerly the American Electronics Association) has published Cyberstates, a very useful report that presents a snapshot of America’s high-tech economy on a state-by-state basis. This year’s version, Cyberstates 2006, was released last week, and it contains lots of juicy tidbits about what’s happening with the US technology sector. 2005 was a pretty good year for the techies. Jobs grew by 61,000 (up to a total of 5.6 million), while unemployment rates for most technology professions fell. Virginia led the nation in high-tech job creation, adding 9,100 tech jobs in 2004. The state was especially strong in two fields: computer systems design and related services, and internet services. Other big job gainers were: California, Texas, New York, and Florida.

The full AeA report, Cyberstates 2006, is available for purchase from AeA. To view a summary of the report as well as other information, please visit  http://www.aeanet.org/Publications/idjj_cyberstates2006_overview.asp.

Who’s the Most Wired?

A new World Economic Forum study ranks countries according to their strengths in information technology and finds that the US tops the list for 2005-2006. The Networked Readiness Index ranks 115 countries across a host of measures that track how well a nation is prepared to benefit from advances in information technology. The US jumped four places to assume the number one slot, followed by (in order) Singapore, Denmark, Iceland, and Finland. America’s strong performance resulted from improvement in IT physical infrastructure, a supportive market environment, and the willingness of business and government to deploy and use the latest technologies. Strong support for start-ups, via a healthy venture capital sector, also boosted the US’s ranking.

The World Economic Forum’s Global Information Technology Report 2005-2006 is available for purchase. Access the report’s executive summary, rankings, and other supporting materials.

EDA Journal Covers Rural Entrepreneurship

The latest edition of Economic Development America, the flagship journal of the Economic Development Administration is devoted to the topic of “Rural Entrepreneurship and Innovative Leadership.” The articles cover a whole range of topics including entrepreneurship on tribal lands (by Elsie Meeks of First Nations Oweesta Corporation), how to build small town success (by Boomtown USA author) Jack Schultz, and the state role in supporting rural entrepreneurship (by Erik Pages of EntreWorks Consulting). The journal also includes case studies of excellent programs in Kentucky, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.

Access the Winter 2006 edition of Economic Development America.

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All stories © 2006 The Public Forum Institute
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